AZ went into the match with news fresh in their minds that manager John van den Brom was to leave at the end of the season. It has been far from plain sailing for the Alkmaar side this season and the team is playing below the level that saw them reach third position in the last campaign.

Visiting goalkeeper Alessandro Damen had to keep out Stengs and Svensson shortly before teammate Denis Mahmudov put Excelsior into a surprise lead.

It didn’t take too long for AZ to level the scores though with Thomas Ouwejan setting up Guus Til.

The second half saw AZ continue to play at a low tempo and Eliás Már Omarsson nearly punished the hosts on the counter-attack.

The end of the game did see AZ’s forward players create plenty more openings though it took an injury-time header from Norwegian striker Johnsen to gift AZ a 2-1 victory in a game they made difficult for themselves.

I'm a physics student from the UK and a massive Eredivisie fan. Started watching after being inspired by the Netherlands national team after the 2010 World Cup. Wilfred Bouma also has a big part to play in my initial keen interest in the league, being a Villa fan meant I wanted to keep track of my favourite player.